An ‘interim’ sovereigntist as well

Aug 03, 2011, 1:26 AM EDT

Oh, NDP. It seems that your interim leader,
Nycole Turmel, held a Bloc Québécois membership while she was also a member of
the federal NDP. And she’s a current member of Québec Solidaire (whose members think the PQ is a bit soft). And when she returned her
Bloc membership card shortly before the election, it was for “personal reasons”
and not because of policies. And yet, the NDP insists that she has always been a devout federalist and was won back from the Bloc. Unfortunately, those two excuses can’t really exist in the same place at the
same time. So what to do?

And cue the flurry of media activity, which included wondering how it is that she could really hold two federal party memberships simultaneously and learning that she was approached to run for the Bloc in the
previous two elections (which she says she declined because she’s a federalist –
who still bought a membership for the Bloc five years running). The
official responses from parties were the Conservatives’ typical “not a leader”
attack, the NDP’s counterspin and the Liberals' smug one. Here's a list of Turmel’s political donations to the NDP, and here’s one of other NDP MPs who have been associated
with the sovereigntists, including Dany Morin (who says he’s not but isn’t sure how he would vote in a referendum). And here is the timeline of how
today went down.

Meanwhile, as Turmel heads to Newfoundland,
one wonders if people will now ask more questions about the Newfoundland
separatist MP there.

Here’s a look at how the government is
building de facto megaprisons by constructing new maximum-security units in
medium-security penitentiaries. Because this will certainly end up well.

The mayor of Montreal is sending out a plea for more infrastructure funds to be given to all cities in the wake of the tunnel
collapse over the weekend.

Parliament may have voted down a private
member’s bill on the subject, but a terminally ill BC woman is asking the court
to rush through her right-to-die lawsuit.

For those of you tracking HIV criminalization creep, a man convicted of murder via HIV infection
has been designated as a dangerous offender.

And going back to those men arrested for being “suspected war criminals," one of them is to be deported for
crimes he allegedly committed in Haiti. As it turns out, Haiti has never heard of him, let alone charged him with war crimes or crimes against
humanity. Not that it will deter Jason Kenney or Vic Toews as they declare
victory.